Grigor Dimitrov had an awful 2018 when we talk about tennis, maybe the worst in his career and now he has to restart almost everything. He feels ready for the new season, made very good preparation and Andre Agassi is part of his staff. It will take more time(November and December are not enough, it will be longer process) to see the previous performances of Grigor, which led him no world number 3. What's obvious is that no matter if his form is superb or not so good, he always performs on high level in Australia in the start of the seasons. His first stop is Brisbane in the last couple of years and these are his results there: 2015- SF lost against Roger, 2016- QF lost against Roger, 2017- champion, win against Nishikori and 2018- SF lost against the champion of the tournament Kyrgios. In the last four seasons he always proceed at least to the QFs, so it's not so strange he is the favourite to qualify once again for this part of the tour.

In his first match against the Japanese Nishioka I saw some positive things- better play on return and much more aggressive performance, but what to expect when in his staff is Agassi and he was maybe the best returner in the world, together with Novak nowadays. His first serve still doesn't enter too regularly and the double faults are still his main weakness. I don't know why he can't stop making them- when his coach was Rasheed, DFs had nothing in common with his style and performance. Under Valverdu they somehow started to appear and nowadays it's lucky if he makes a match with less than 4-5. We will see what influence will have in his next match and also in which parts of his serving games will appear.

On the other side in John Millman. The Aussie was born in Brisbane, so no doubt almost all of the crowd will support him. He loves to play in warm and wet conditions as they are in Brisbane, but Grigor also prefers warmer weather conditions, so this is expected to be one very tough and close match. Strangely or not the draw challenged them once again as in 2018 they had to face each other in the same part of the tournament(2nd round) and Grigor somehow succeeded to survive a three-sets battle after a comeback and a long tiebreak in the 2nd set- 4:6 7:6 6:3. John Millman started the tournament against Sandgren and won in three sets after 7:6 6:7 6:0. He also showed some weaknesses on serve in the first two sets, but also stability form the baseline.

It's tough to say who will dictate the tempo in the beginning, it depends how they will enter in this match, but I am sure this is one of the opponents which Grigor knows is more than dangerous on home soil. The Bulgarian is a slight favourite for me, maybe he will win the match, but it will be a tough one for sure and is expected to go in three sets. +3.5 games AH for Millman look very tempting as Grigor is not amongst the players who wins his matches with difference, even against much weaker opponents. Personally I think it's much better option to play games handicap for Millman instead overs about games or sets!